In Factory Automation (FA) and related fields, an inspector selects a sample of products and examines the entire outside for bumps and pits or scratches when performing a visual inspection of, for example, components during manufacture, of half-finished products, or of products prior to delivery. However, performing this kind of inspection for all products would be time consuming and labor intensive.
The use of machines which combine image sensors, measurement sensors, and robots for inspections has been proposed as a way to counter this problem. For instance, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2009-14696 (Patent Document 1) discloses a visual inspection device that employs a robot. Here, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2009-14696 describes providing the robot with a camera and an illumination unit so that the visual inspection device may acquire the image information needed to perform a visual inspection of the inspection object. A robot controller directs the robot to move the camera relative to the inspection object, and operates the illumination unit together with moving the camera.